In one of Lane’s classrooms, students gather around a table, scribbling notes and brainstorming ideas for their next big event. As club members find a way to mix both entertainment and education, a Star Wars movie and trivia night to raise awareness on space law is next up on their list, according to member Lilliana Norman.
Co-President Payman Rajaie said he started the club to bring some of his leadership and advocacy skills from the Red Cross national headquarters to Lane. He hopes to be able to make an impact in the Lane community. “My ultimate goal for this club is to inspire the next generation of leaders and advocates willing to invest their time for communal growth in a variety of fields,” he said.
Started just a year ago, the Red Cross club has quickly grown focusing on a variety of topics. The club itself can be broken up into different sections including leadership which handles monthly presentations on how to develop leadership skills, a blood drive and CPR training section that works to organize events, and a third that focuses on international humanitarian law.
“It’s interesting to see all the different things that the Red Cross does,” McKenna Entzminger said. “I just thought it was like helping a hurricane, fixing stuff after that. But we’ve done so much more stuff than that this year.”
Entzminger said the club can also help students develop a variety of skills not only leadership but researching as well.
“It’s interesting to research all these things that we’ve been doing with different groups,” Entzminger said. “Like, there’s so many options for stuff you could do once you’re in the club.”
Co-President Julai Kiszynski also noted the volunteer opportunities the club offers and the appeal of focusing on topics that are currently relevant and may even invoke personal connections. The club meetings themselves focus on a variety of topics and have shown to be productive.
“Every meeting, our separate groups kind of break off, and we just work on our specific topics,” Kiszynski said. “And like, we’ve been pretty productive, everyone knows what they have to do, and they stay on task for the most part so if you have very specific goals. I feel like we’re doing a good job working towards it.”
Both Kisynski and Entzminger are part of the Youth Action Committee (YAC) that focuses on international humanitarian law (IHL). Kiszynski emphasized the importance of having young people advocating for this topic and said it was more of a responsibility.
Norman is also a part of this committee and similarly mentioned the importance of providing resources and educating the youth on these matters.
“The best thing to do is educate other people,” Norman said.
The goal of the YAC is to educate Lane students and other youth in the community about the importance of international human law. By doing this, they hope to make an impact in the world. “We believe that it is important for the YAC to educate Lane students about IHL because we believe that if more people know about it, countries in conflict will be more likely to abide by it. We also aim to motivate our peers to speak out when they witness violations of IHL,” Kiszynski said.
This year the Red Cross is focusing on space law. It is the regulation of what countries are allowed and not allowed to do outside of our planet. As it’s the nationwide theme for youth action campaigns, the club is also focusing on space law.
The club believes that with the advancement of technology, space law is becoming increasingly important.
“With more countries advancing in space technology, the likelihood of space-related conflicts increases,” Kiszynski said. The Red Cross chose this topic as the theme for youth campaigns in order to spark conversation of a topic that is usually not thought of when talking about armed conflicts, Kiszynski said.
While Rajaie says that after working and advocating for IHL for the last three years, he believes that the application of IHL in space is a blindspot of IHL. He hopes to raise awareness for the current lack of IHL in space. “By participating in this campaign, I hope we can inspire future leaders and advocates to fill those blind spots. This is not limited to space, there are other new factors in global conflict that weren’t present during the establishment of current International Humanitarian laws that are just as important,” he said.
With the school year coming to an end soon, Rajaie looked back on his favorite memories of the club this year, those being working with his fellow champions that they are passionate about.
Similarly, Kiszynski feels a sense of pride with what the Red Cross club has accomplished so far, and she hopes to see their efforts come to fruition. “Although we have faced some obstacles while planning events this year, I do feel a sense of accomplishment. We have created a strong community within our club and we have worked hard,” Kiszynski said. “Once we begin hosting more events in the next few months, I believe we will begin to see the impact of our efforts.”
